For marketers with products and services to build awareness around, social media is the newest and most efficient way to effectively reach targeted niche audiences. What we recommend to all our clients looking to start marketing in social media is that we work together and put a solid strategy in place. Below I have broken down the process from pre-strategy through to execution.

Pre-Strategy

Before strategizing, there are some questions a client should be asking:

• Is your customer online? There are customers all over the Internet making purchases all the time, but is your product sought after by these buyers?
• How will your company handle the negativity that will inevitably occur on the blogs you're working with? Most blogs and video sites have spots for user comments. Not all comments posted will be positive and clients should ready themselves for this.
• How committed is the company to this kind of initiative? Clients must consider that social media marketing works almost entirely on the long tail and if its quick traction they're looking for, than social media is not the right outlet.
• Are you prepared to make adjustments, think on-the-fly and be a risk taker?

Strategy

• Communications: Decide where you wish to start holding your conversations. Meaning, decide what topics you wish to open the floor on and what publishers you want said topics to be discussed on.
• Approach: Decide what variety of content will be used for the effort and determine the work flow around it.
• Friends and Neighbours: Social media strategies require taking the community into consideration. Make sure you are aligning yourself correctly with the community you wish to surround your product or service. Be ready to reach out to your community, engaging them to want to comment and share.

These are some very broad outlines on how to successfully deploy social media marketing campaigns. Every clients' needs and wants are different however and consulting professionals who understand your business is extremely important.